Global News Podcast: Evacuating Gaza hospital 'will endanger lives' - WHO

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Jenna Jaleel and in the early hours of Monday, the 30th of October, these are our main stories.

Aid agencies say it's impossible to evacuate a crowded hospital in the Gaza Strip

after Israel's military reportedly warned everyone there to leave.

The authorities in the Russian Republic of Dagestan have opened a criminal investigation

into the storming of an airport by a mob searching for Israeli citizens.

Mexican officials say it will take months to clear all the debris from the center of

Acapulco, which was hit by a hurricane on Wednesday.

Also in this podcast…

Tributes have poured in for the actor Matthew Perry,

best known for starring in the TV sitcom Friends after his death at the age of 54.

The World Health Organization says it's deeply concerned by reports of Israeli calls for the

evacuation of a key hospital in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes have reportedly been landing about

20 meters from the Al-Quds facility. Aid agencies have warned that evacuating the site

is impossible. The hospital is treating hundreds of people, some of whom are too

ill or frail to be moved. On top of this, about 14,000 people who've been made homeless by the

Israeli bombardment are thought to have sought refuge there. The director general of the Palestinian

Red Crescent Society, Marwan Jalani, which runs the hospital, says they've been getting repeated

warnings all day to evacuate the facility. We have people in intensive care units. We have

infants in incubators. We cannot move them. There are no means to move them, not the vehicles,

not the fuel, and the roads are totally destroyed. On top of this, of course, you have 14,000 people

who we have informed them of the threat. We have informed them that we have received these

messages, but they have chosen to stay. As WHO said, moving infants in incubators or intensive

care unit patients would be a heavy sentence for them. The BBC's Rushdie Abu Alouf is in Southern

Gaza and gave us this update. It's quieter in Hanyounis, comparing with the previous days,

but in Gaza, Al-Quds Hospital run by the Palestinian ICRC is making the headline tonight.

As Israel pushing hard towards the hospital, hundreds of air strikes in the last couple of

days, but today they are very close, damaging some of the hospital properties. We received a video

from one of the people trapped inside the hospital showing a huge smoke inside and dust inside the

hospital. The medical team are distributing masks to the people as about 14,000 people according to

the director of the hospital are taking the hospital as a refugee because earlier footage show

the scale of destruction around the hospital is huge, but now they are pushing

hard to the hospital, damaging some of their properties, but it's still not direct

to Al-Quds Hospital, only very close to it. Rushdie Abu Alouf in Gaza. President Biden has told

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the flow of aid into Gaza needs to be considerably

increased. The U.S. leader and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, have agreed

to accelerate assistance for the territory. 24 trucks carrying relief supplies were allowed

into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, but Cairo says hundreds more are being held up by Israeli checks.

Meanwhile, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is warning that civil

order in Gaza is starting to collapse after more than three weeks of Israeli bombardment.

Warehouses containing flour and other basic supplies have been ransacked by thousands

of people. These guards said they were forced to act because after weeks of Israel only allowing

in a trickle of food and aid, they had nothing. We have no flour, no aid, no water, not even toilets.

Our houses were destroyed. No one cares about us. We appeal to the people of the world.

All international powers are against us. We needed aid, and we wouldn't have done this

if we weren't in need. We need fresh water. We need food. We are starving.

This is totally unfair. Our children can't sleep from hunger and thirst.

We need to provide water and food for them. I heard more about this issue from our Chief

International Correspondent, Lee Juset, who's in Jerusalem. Day in, day out for many weeks now,

we've heard the stories of people going to bakeries, skirmishes around the bread, the very

limited amount of bread there is, people eating one pita bread a day, people having to dry for a

very long time to find water or food. Only a trickle of aid is getting in. Even the United

Nations, the UNRA, the Spokespersons, even the World Food Program Spokesperson has said that

it's understandable that people will try to break into places that they think there is food there.

They would think this is food which belongs to us. This includes flour for making a bread,

and so thousands of people have apparently, according to the UN, gone into the distribution

centres, gone into the warehouses, trying to grab whatever they can. This is the actions of

not just a desperate people, but a starving people. Israel, though, says there is enough food in Gaza

and that it will allow more food to go in. Yes, it was noticeable that on Friday night, when they

announced the expansion of their ground operations, in other words, that armour and soldiers would

cross the border and would stay there for the first time, that they would also accelerate

the entry of aid. And we have just heard before I joined you that another 24 trucks did get in

today. We heard this from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, it had food supplies and medical

necessities. That brings the sum total in a week of entries to 118. In times before the war,

including commercial supplies coming into Gaza, there were 500 trucks a day.

Least you said, there were clashes in Gaza on Sunday between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops

near the Arez crossing. The Israeli army says its forces killed several Hamas gunmen who'd come

out of a tunnel. Hamas's armed wing said that it had attacked Israeli armoured vehicles,

they're killing those inside. A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces, Daniel Hagari, gave this

update on the ground operation in Gaza. The ground forces and air have been acting in Gaza today

and eliminated dozens of terrorists. They're continuing to assess a situation and expanding

things gradually. Based on our plans in order to achieve the objectives of this war, we are calling

upon the northern Gazans to evacuate temporarily to the south for your own safety. Just below the

Gazan River, the conditions will be so much better. There is water, food and medication there.

My colleague Julian Marshall spoke to another one of our correspondents in Jerusalem, Paul Adams,

about the repeated IDF warning for the residents of Gaza to move south.

This has become a daily refrain. The Israelis are determined that as many Palestinians as possible

should leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip and move south because it's clear that

Gaza City and its surrounding areas will be the main focus of its activity in the weeks to come.

Judging by the words that have come out from Israeli leaders and the maneuvering so far

of the Israeli military, their focus is very much on Gaza City and they are acutely conscious

that as long as there are tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people

in that area, it is going to be a hellishly difficult job. The story around Al-Quds Hospital

tonight is an example of that already because you have repeated warnings to the hospital to leave.

You have bombing nearby, which is actually breaking windows and causing panic in the hospital,

convincing many that the hospital may already be in some ways under attack. But everyone knows that

this is going to get more and more acute as this military offensive gets deeper and deeper into Gaza.

Has there been in fact any clarification as to whether the hospital has been told

to evacuate? Because I know at one point a reg crescent official was saying that that order had

been rescinded. It's very, very unclear at all and the Israelis have not said anything about it

that I'm aware of. I think it is all in the context of this repeated general appeal

or demand to the people of Gaza to leave and it has been sounding more and more urgent because

I think the Israelis are conscious that this is still a heavily populated area and that for one

reason or another, either because people simply refuse to go or because perhaps in some cases

Hamas is stopping them from leaving, the Israelis are going to find themselves conducting complex

military operations in a built up area with a large civilian population and that is clearly

a nightmare. And very briefly Paul, can you give us any sense of how this ground offensive,

this ground war is shaping up? Are they slicing up Gaza's territory and cleaning it up? It's a

bit early to say that. I mean they're really only on the ground up in one tiny little corner of the

northwest of the Gaza Strip. They seem to have established a bit of a foothold there over the

last 48 hours and we're not seeing much sign of that expanding just yet. But I think there is every

indication that this is going to be a slow burning campaign in which the Israelis are going to

gradually expand their presence on the ground and try and squeeze Gaza city in particular

to the point where the civilians leave and the Hamas fighters there give up. But that is a long

way off. Paul Adams in Jerusalem. Israel's President Isaac Herzog has met some of the relatives

of the more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. A day after the families got the chance

to talk directly to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They told him they feared the

intensified airstrikes on Gaza and Israel's expanded ground operation were further endangering the

lives of their loved ones. Among the hostages are the sister-in-law and 12-year-old niece of

Zohar Avigdori, a teacher in Haifa. Now all of our hopes are in the hands of public's opinion in

Israel, in the world, in the hands of media diplomats to get everyone to realize that no matter how

harsh the conflict is these people are innocent civilians. There are babies and children and

women and elderly people there and we need to get them back. There's been a phenomenal coming

together of all the families of the hostages and kidnapped people and a strong demand from the

government and from foreign governments, from foreign organizations, from the Red Cross and the

demand is to bring them home right now. This is a violation of all the war laws. This is a violation

of human decency, of human morality and our call is to our government as to the rest of the world

to bring them as quickly as possible. We expect that as time goes by the chance of seeing them

back alive and well decreases more and more and it's crucial to act now. Zohar Avigdori,

a teacher whose relatives are being held hostage by Hamas. Israel has urged Russia to protect Jews

after a mob in the Republic of Dagestan stormed an airport where a flight had reportedly landed

from Tel Aviv. From Moscow here's our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg. Mobile phone video from

the scene showed an angry crowd what looks like hundreds of people storming the airport in Mahachkala,

the regional capital of the mainly Muslim Russian Republic of Dagestan. They ran through the terminal

building looking for Israelis. They shouted in Arabic God is greatest and anti-Semitic slogans.

Others outside Mahachkala airport were stopping cars and demanding to see documents in a chaotic

search for Israeli passports. Russian National Guard have now arrived on the scene. A criminal

case has been opened for civil disorder. Steve Rosenberg. Now let's turn to a rather interesting

side effect of climate change. Global warming is causing Norway's glaciers to melt and as they

disappear ancient artifacts that were once lost in the ice are now re-emerging having been buried

for thousands of years but the retreating glaciers also pose a risk to these newly uncovered treasures

and teams of archaeologists are racing to collect them before they decompose and are lost forever

as Adrian Murray reports. It's a steep three hour hike over rugged and rocky terrain to our base

camp at the foot of the Lendbrunn ice patch. I'm with a team of glacial archaeologists

searching for artifacts as they emerge from the rapidly melting ice. Behind me is the

last remains of the ice leading up to the lost mountain pass. Gillian Post Melbu is an archaeologist

at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo. We can already see that the ice has

receded a lot since last time we did field work here. At almost 2000 meters high it's believed

this pass was once a transport route from Norway's interior to the coast. Espen Finstad is a glacial

archaeologist working for Norway's inlanded county. We know that there have been a route here

at least from 280 but after that this route was forgotten. Now we find different items from

up to 6,000 years ago. They tell us a whole new story about the importance of the mountains in the

past. Walking in lines the team meticulously surveyed the rocky ground alongside the ice.

Suddenly they're in luck. This here is the bit for a horse and it also has

part of the bridal preserve which is exceedingly rare. This should be like

1000 years old maybe more. Frozen for thousands of years the finds are remarkably well preserved

but it's race against time to rescue them before they decay. We have a small window of opportunity

to save these for the future generations. As they were lost on the ice these objects they just

ended up what is pretty much a giant prehistoric freezer. They get frozen there is nothing there

for them to decompose and they come out mint conditioned. At museum labs in Oslo the finds

are analysed and carbon dated. Glacial archaeology has emerged as a new field in recent decades.

Lars Pilo is one of the lead researchers from the secrets of the ice team. The ice is retreating

and that has released thousands of artifacts so we now have more than 4,000 finds and 66 sites.

Among them are viking swords, snowshoes for horses, an ancient pair of wooden skis and even

roman style sandals. As the ice thaws a once unknown chapter of history has now opened up.

Within the coming decades these ice patches may be gone. These snow patches they are slowly dying

and it has to do with climate change, warmer climate, more rain, humid. The snow ice is melting

rapidly so it's a huge change. That leaves Espen Finstern with mixed feelings. Mostly when I go

around I feel a little bit sad knowing how it would even be in 50 years but I also can be very

excited when we find things, saving things. Espen Finstern a glacial archaeologist ending

that report from Adrian Murray in Norway. Still to come? There's a lot of birds and I can see a lot

of green a lot of trees on the other side of the river. The arduous task facing Ecuador's new

president shutting down an oil field in the Amazon rainforest.

The Explanation is the podcast from the BBC World Service that goes beyond the spin exploring

the important questions about long-running stories and the latest global news. An honest

explanation of the events shaping our lives. Search for the explanation wherever you get your BBC

podcasts. Welcome back to the Global News podcast. Reports from Iran say several people were arrested

at the funeral of a teenager who'd been in a coma for weeks after an alleged confrontation

with the morality police. There was tight security at the funeral on Sunday of Armito Geravand who

was declared brain dead last week. Human rights groups have blamed the police for her death

saying they assaulted her for not covering her hair when she got on a train in Tehran.

This year's Nobel Peace Laureate, Nagesh Muhammadi, was one of many Iranians who also

blamed the authorities. They deny any wrongdoing. I heard more about the funeral from Kazranarji

of BBC Persian. The surprising thing about this is that normally in these circumstances when there's

a lot of secrecy and security forces are getting out of hand, they prevent these things happening.

But for some reason it went ahead. Hundreds of people turned up and then the funeral sort of

slowly morphed into some kind of protest shouting slogans against the government, various people,

and several people from what we understand have been arrested, including Nasrin Soutoudi. Nasrin Soutoudi

is a well-known human rights activist in Iran, jailed for many years. She was out of prison

on furlough but it looks as if she's been picked up again. Not surprising that these protests have

happened because many people in Iran and outside Iran have been drawing parallels between the death

of Armito Geravand and that of Masa Amini over a year ago that sparked those widespread protests

across Iran. That's right and everyone you talk to they believe that Armita was was killed basically,

pushed out of the train by hijab guards inside the train. The government denies this of course,

they're saying that when she entered the train her blood pressure dropped suddenly and she fell

and she had her head against the platform just outside the train. But everyone believes that

she was pushed. In terms of international reaction we've heard expressions of outrage in the past

but the Iranian authorities may perhaps be banking on the fact that the world is focused on events

elsewhere in the Middle East right now in Gaza. Absolutely, I think that's the reason that they

have they announced her death at this time because we got reports that she was basically brain dead

and they were keeping her going just so that you know they keep her just about alive or at least

they can say that she's not dead and then they announced her death right at the height of the

stuff that was going on in Gaza and all the attention in Iran as well as outside Iran

sort of diverted to the war in Gaza. It was the best time for them the authorities to release

the news so that you know the reactions inside the country wouldn't be as much as it would have been

otherwise. Kazranaji, Kenya's Human Rights Commission has said King Charles should apologize

for abuses committed by Britain during the colonial era. The monarch is making a state

visit to Kenya on Tuesday and says he will try to learn more about the wrongs that people suffered

there. Paul Moss reports. This is a trip that matters. The US, Russia and China are all jostling

for influence in Africa but Kenya is one country where the UK thinks it can still play a role.

That's perhaps why the British government is keen to appease local feeling, promising that King

Charles will try to deepen his understanding of the colonial era during his visit this week.

But that era saw about 10,000 Kenyans killed when the British authorities suppressed a

pro-independence movement. The country's Human Rights Commission now wants an apology

but there's been no indication that any will be offered. Paul Moss. The authorities in the

Mexican city of Acapulco, which was devastated by a hurricane, say it will take at least three

months to clear all the debris near the port and the marina. 43 people are now known to have died.

Here's our America's regional editor, Leonardo Rosha. Many of the victims were fishermen who

were at sea or who stayed in their boats for fear of robberies during the storm.

Autists made landfall in the early hours of Wednesday, taking forecasters by surprise.

They had predicted a mild tropical storm and only realized it had become a powerful hurricane

a few hours before it hit Acapulco. Autists became the strongest hurricane ever on Mexico's

Pacific coast. The local government estimates that 220,000 buildings have been damaged.

Thousands of soldiers and heavily armed police have been deployed across the city

to try to prevent looting. Leonardo Rosha. How do you balance an economy that relies on oil but

voted to close one of its largest oil fields? That's the question facing the newly elected

interim president of Ecuador. Daniel Neboa takes office next month and along with trying to control

violent crime and revive an ailing economy, he's also tasked with shutting down an oil field in

Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Sophie Estor from the BBC World Service's The Climate Question reports.

There's a lot of birds and I can see a lot of green, a lot of trees on the other side of the river.

This is Lucette Arevalo. She's a journalist based in Ecuador. She's not far from the Yasunin National

Park, a protected part of the rainforest that's one of the most biodiverse places on earth.

It contains around 1,300 species of animals or more and more than 2,700 species of plants.

You can find tapires, huantas, jaguars, so many birds that I don't know all of the names.

This extraordinary national park is also home to several indigenous communities,

including two uncontacted tribes. But it's also a large source of Ecuador's oil.

It produces nearly 60,000 barrels a day. On August 20th we voted for a referendum to decide

whether the oil in Yasunin should stay in the ground. Around 60% of Ecuadorians voted to stop

the oil drilling. People are worried about climate change. People are worried that the

biodiversity will be affected by more oil drilling. People are worried about contamination

and the help of the people who live close to the national park and the oil fields.

The Ecuadorian vote was the world's first national referendum on whether to stop oil extraction.

Alejandra Santillana is one of the activists who campaigned for it.

We were like no way. We were fighting for this like 10 years, you know. What is for us was so

important. Were you surprised that 60% of Ecuadorians voted to stop drilling this oil?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were very surprised. We have been extracting oil for the last

50 years and oil has occupied a central place in the national budget.

But the result hasn't gone down well with everyone,

especially people living in the area who depend on oil for their income.

Juan Vargas runs boat tours down the Napo river near the Yasunin national park.

I voted that we should drill for oil, get it all out of the ground.

And 1000% sure we should. Oil is the only resource our country has. If we don't drill it,

how are we going to make a living? The referendum took place alongside a general

election where the Ecuadorian people also voted for a change in government.

The outgoing administration has raised huge concerns about stopping oil drilling in Yasunin.

We are a poor country and we cannot afford to stop production in such an important field.

This is Fernando Santos, Ecuador's current energy and mining minister.

This field produces around 12% of our oil production. It is 1.2 of GDP and on top of that,

around $1 billion will be the cost of dismantling the infrastructure.

So it will be a terrible blow for the country, for the economy.

Newly elected President Daniel Neboa reportedly voted in favour of stopping the drilling

and is now faced with the complex task of closing the oil field,

while also delivering on his promise to revive Ecuador's economy.

That report by Sophie Estor. Tributes have poured in for the actor Matthew Perry,

best known for starring in the TV sitcom Friends after his death at the age of 54.

He was found dead at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday.

His family released a statement expressing appreciation for the outpouring of love,

saying he'd brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who went to school with him,

said his passing was shocking and saddening and thanked him for all the laughs.

With a look back at Matthew Perry's life, here's Charlotte Gallagher.

As the sarcastic, witty and wisecracking Chandler Bing,

Matthew Perry was one of the most successful television stars of his generation.

Hey, anybody know a good tailor? You need some clothes altered?

No, no, I'm just looking for a man to draw on me with chalk.

He didn't just play the character, he was the character. Perry said that when he first read

the script for Friends, it was like someone had followed him around for a year, stealing his jokes,

copying his mannerisms and photocopying his world-weary yet witty view of life.

But at the height of his fame, the actor was struggling with addiction to alcohol and drugs.

He spent more than five million pounds getting sober

and attended more than 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Perry spoke openly about his addiction and the impact it had on his life.

It became a very public issue, which in hindsight is quite good. I mean,

I'm happy that it was because it ultimately helped me in the long run

because I had to go through those struggles publicly. I get to help a lot more people.

Matthew Perry received Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Chandler Bing

and his work on the West Wing. He also appeared in films such as The Whole Nine Yards and Fools Rush

In. But it's his role in Friends that he will be best remembered for. Perry made millions laugh

with his one-liners and comic timing. Maggie Wheeler, who played his brash on-screen girlfriend

Janice said, the world will miss you, Matthew Perry.

Charlotte Gallagher looking back on the life of the actor Matthew Perry, who has died at the age of 54.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered, you can send us an email,

the address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global NewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Craig Kingham. The producer was Liam McCheffrey. The editor is

Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.